This year's Wexford Maritime Festival takes place on the weekend of June 29 and 30 on Wexford Quay and promises to be the biggest one yet.

Naturally, given the theme of the festival, there will be plenty of water activities on offer, among them paddle boarding, sailing, power boating, raft races and kayaking. In addition, the popular stunt airshow will provide entertainment for those who'd prefer not to get wet. The tall ships also return and they will be joined by a number of historic lifeboats.

There will also be sailing races, rowing races and a 'Search and Rescue' demonstration involving the Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 117 and Wexford RNLI.

A family-friendly event, the festival will have a Children's Village with circus skills workshops, disco fun, lego workshops, viking shield and brass rubbing, pottery and a touch tank pool in the Environment section.

The Entertainment and Food village includes the stage area which will feature performing dance and drama groups on the Saturday and Irish music sessions and local bands on Sunday.

A range of local and international food will also be on offer, including greenhill crepes, wood fired pizza, bad boyz bbq, churros, waffles, Portuguese style chargrill among others.

Away from the quay the Maritime Village will play host to a variety of exhibitions throughout the weekend, including a large model boat display, a photographic exhibition and a boat pond with mechanised model boats.

The crews of various local rescue services will take up residence at the Emergency Services Village to meet and greet the public. The horseback mounted division of the Garda Síochána are this year's special visitors and they will be joined by members of Rosslare and Curracloe Coast Guard units, the RNLI, Irish Air Corps, Wexford Civil Defence, Wexford Fire Service, Slaney Search and Rescue, Scouts, Army Reserves, Wexford Marinewatch and the HSE Ambulance Service.

Festival directors Lorraine Galvin and David Maguire, who organise the event with a team of community groups, said, 'We have the largest number of visiting boats this year along with a tall ship and 5 historic lifeboats visiting from all over giving a lovely visual to Wexford Quay along with great food, entertainment and a chance to see what great maritime activities Wexford has to offer, it promises to be a great family-friendly weekend.'

For a full run down of the weekend's events visit wexfordmaritimefestival.ie